


i bet your soup is really good but i cant smell or taste it and im so sorry

by candyrabits



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Red Riding Hood AU, Sickfic, but theres more fluff after that, theres a bit of fighting at the start
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 11:17:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19991284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candyrabits/pseuds/candyrabits
Summary: eso round 2 prompt: "KuroNazu Red Riding Hood AU Fluff"the one where they fight, just a little, then go home and be domestic





	i bet your soup is really good but i cant smell or taste it and im so sorry

He drops down to his knees. Chest heaving, body aching, red cloak streaked with dirt; Nazuna breathes through the pain as he tries to take stock of his situation. The enemy is a few feet ahead of him, panting, but still standing. His eyes slide over to his daggers, kicked to the side of the field, calculating his chances of being able to retrieve them to fight back, to defend himself, _anything_ , but--

The figure in front of him leaps. Nazuna’s mind screams at himself to _move_ but his tired body won’t listen, _can’t_ listen with how every limb feels like a dead weight and every breath feels like inhaling steam, and there’s nothing Nazuna can do except watch. 

He’s knocked flat onto his back. A yelp of pain escapes his lips as his head collides with the dry earth. Nazuna’s breath comes faster, his knees trembling, fingers digging into the ground to find purchase to _maybe_ slide out from under the brute, but he’s stopped by a clawed hand creeping around his neck. The figure, now perched on top of him, blocks out the light of the setting sun behind him, and all Nazuna can see is his looming silhouette. He rests his weight on the hand on Nazuna’s collarbone, leaning forward, the fur on his wolf ears tickling his face. The voice by Nazuna’s ear is low and makes the hair on his arms stand on end.

_“It’s my win.”_

With that, he sits upright and crosses his arms, a rather unimpressed look on his sharp features. All his weight is balanced on Nazuna’s poor, bruised ribs. A very nice angle, in all honesty, but Nazuna is very tired and in a fair bit of pain, so weakly slaps his hands on the brute’s chest, whining.

“Kuro-chiiiiin, get ooooff! You’we hweavy! I get it, you won, sho move alweady!”

“Nope,” he drawls, not moving one bit. Nazuna’s slaps might as well be the autumn leaves falling onto Kuro, for all the good they’re doing, damn it. 

“C’mon, ya usually do way better than this. Ya always land a nick or two around here,” he taps a scar on his bicep, “and today ya made…. none.” 

He leans forward. Nazuna feels the beginnings of a sneeze itch its way up his throat. “I ain’t gettin’ offa you until ya tell me what’s botherin’ you. You’ve been distracted before, but it’s never been so bad that ya totally can’t focus on training.”

“I could focus just fine,” he huffs, but deep down he knows Kuro’s right. His skin is littered with bruises and he’s _fairly_ certain he sprained an ankle or something, and even with Kuro’s ridiculous win streak he’s never lost this badly. The headache he’s staving off with sheer willpower definitely didn’t help things either, and there’s still…

_“Achoo!”_

Kuro blinks. Nazuna, sniffling, turns his head to the side to avoid eye contact. Slowly, the hand that was resting on his chest comes up to settle on his forehead. Nazuna closes his eyes at the nice bit of warmth that provides. There’s a little hum from Kuro, before he’s suddenly _very_ high up and being held against a _very_ firm chest, both of which he is extremely unused to. Instinctively, he smacks Kuro in the chest and wiggles to get Kuro to _put him down_ _!_

Ignoring him, Kuro calmly walks to the edge of the field where Nazuna’s daggers lie, having been kicked away some time during their practice fight. He squishes Nazuna closer to his chest as he bends down to pick them up, and Nazuna really doesn’t know whether to be immensely grateful or really ticked off.

He settles for the latter.

“Put! Me! Down! I can walk by myself, thank you very m-- _achoo!_ ” 

“Sure ya can.” He passes the knives to Nazuna and continues walking, bound for Nazuna’s cottage. “ ‘s just a matter of how long we’d take to get back, and how much shittier you’d feel afterwards for trying. You know ya coulda told me about it, right? I wouldn’t’ve minded takin’ a day off.”

Sullenly, Nazuna straps his daggers back into place against his thighs, noting the hint of hurt in Kuro’s voice and feeling about eight times worse. Ahh, this is what he gets for stubbornly trying to power through everything. He should’ve expected that willpower could only get him so far.

“It’s… not that i didn’t want to tell you. I, um, really thought I could get through it on my own? And I really didn’t want to miss out on practice, either!” He knocks his head against Kuro’s shoulder. “But… sorry about that. I’ll tell you next time if I’m feeling bad, okay? It’s just, the kids, they’ve been falling sick one by one recently, so I’ve been taking care of them. I guess I kinda forgot that I get sick pretty easily too, heheh.”

Kuro hums again. He’s silent for a while, long enough for Nazuna to start dozing off, wrapped in Kuro’s furnace-like embrace. “Are they home?”

“...Huh?”

“Are the lil’ rabbits home, and are they still sick?”

“No,” he yawns, “they got better a few days ago, so they’re spending the night over at the twins’ place by the river. Why?”

“I woulda brought you back to mine if they were still sick, but since they’re already up ‘n about I guess your place is fine.” 

“Mmm, okay.”

Silence falls over them again. It’s getting too dark for Nazuna’s human eyes to see, but Kuro’s still as sure-footed as ever, so he figures his lycanthrope eyes are doing their night-seeing thing. Blame it one the fever, or the headache, or whatever he has, but from his angle down below, Kuro’s eyes reflecting the light of the moon kind of looks like the glittering expanse of stars in the sky behind him. 

Nazuna smiles, just a little. _He burns bright like the sun, but he’s as pretty as the moon and stars, huh._

It’s his last coherent thought before he slips off.

* * *

He wakes, sometime in the night, to something cool being draped over his forehead.

“Mmh, Kuro-chin…?” 

The moonlight streaming through the window makes Kuro look far, far gentler than what he usually makes himself out to be. Tenderly, Kuro reaches a hand out to ruffle his hair. He’s probably sweaty, and grimy from the day’s practice, but Kuro still smiles regardless. “Get some sleep, Nazuna. I’ll tell your kids in the morning to stay away for a lil’ while so you can get better.”

Nazuna barely pays attention to what he’s saying, nuzzling into Kuro’s warm hand. Safe, safe, he feels warm and safe, here with Kuro, because Kuro will take care of him like he always does. Blearily, he thinks that being taken care of by Kuro is a _lot_ better than trying to get through it alone.

He makes a little contented noise and nods off again, lulled by the hand affectionately stroking his hair.

* * *

The second time he wakes, he’s completely and utterly _smothered_ in blankets and pillows. It’s a nice little nest, he’ll admit, but even in his fever-ridden state it’s too hot for him to handle.

He wiggles his way out of the blanket cocoon, and regrets it the moment he’s hit with the cooler air. Snagging the thickest blanket, he wraps it around himself and pads to the main room, where he hears Kuro messing around with the stuff in his kitchen.

From his vantage point, only the tips of his brown ears are visible over the countertop. They flicker as Nazuna walks in, and Kuro’s head pops up, somehow looking as well-rested as he usually does despite Nazuna being quite sure he got a pathetic amount of sleep.

“Oh, you’re up. Here, I made ya some tea. Hope ya don’t mind I just helped myself to your kitchen, heh.”

He places a flower-patterned cup on the counter. Nazuna hops up onto the stool at the end and curls his hand around the mug. It’s warm, much like Kuro. 

The man himself moves around Nazuna’s kitchen with grace one wouldn’t usually expect from a lycan his size. Nazuna’s nose is clogged beyond saving, so he can’t really tell what’s going on, but judging by the things on the counter, Kuro’s making a soup of some sort. His stomach rumbles in anticipation. He pokes at a bandage on his upper arm that definitely wasn’t there yesterday as he waits.

It’s not long before Kuro ladles out a single bowl of soup and sets it down in front of Nazuna. 

“Herbal soup. I make it for my sis’ when she’s sick too.”

Nazuna thanks him and gives it a slow sip. He can’t really taste much through the cold clogging his every tastebud, but it feels light on his tongue, and it soothes the fire in his throat with every swallow. 

He looks up at Kuro, letting a smile grow on his lips, even though he still feels kind of terrible. “It’s really good, Kuro-chin!”

Kuro grins back in response, ruffling his hair. “That’s great, then. Are ya feelin’ any better? You were knocked out for kinda long, but I didn’t wanna wake ya.”

He bends down, his hand still buried in Nazuna’s messy hair. Their foreheads touch. Nazuna feels his face start to _burn_.

“Uwah!” Nazuna jerks his head back, heart pounding. “I feel, um, a lot better! I’m just gonna take another nap after I, uh, finish this!” He sips his soup faster, who cares if he burns his tongue, he can’t believe Kuro just did something like _that_ like it was nothing, what the hell.

Kuro just nods slowly, like he’s trying yet failing to understand something. Nazuna keeps his head down, hurriedly draining his bowl.

He’s in the middle of lifting his bowl to his lips to finish the last bits of soup when he hears a drawn-out “ohhh” coming from Kuro. He doesn’t want to know. Nothing good comes with that tone of voice, so he _doesn’t want to know._

There’s a light tap on his shoulder. In hindsight, he should’ve expected a move like this out of Kuro, but-- well. He’s a fool on regular days, and when he’s sick, it’s doubly so. Out of instinct, he turns his head, only for his lips to meet Kuro’s own, slightly chapped ones. It’s just white noise in his head for a solid minute as Kuro presses their lips together, watching him, mirth in his eyes. 

Finally, _finally_ his brain catches up to the situation enough for him to lurch backwards, right off the chair. He can only sputter indignantly as Kuro laughs, the pleasant sound echoing around the room. It’s a sound that gives him butterflies in his tummy, even after all this time. God, being whipped makes playing angry so _difficult._

Pouting to hide his blush, he mutters, “you’re gonna get sick, y’know…”

“Nah,” Kuro says as he lifts Nazuna and sets him back in his chair, “idiots don’t get colds, and lycans rarely get sick anyway, so that’s twice the protection.”

The ease with which he lifts Nazuna… He’s utterly speechless. How dare he be so attractive while Nazuna’s this disgustingly sick. 

Kuro opens his mouth, probably to tease him even more, but he’s interrupted by a flurry of knocks at the door. There’s vague yelling right outside, but he recognizes the voices to be his kids’.

“I thought I told them to stay away for now…” Kuro wipes his hands on a dishtowel. “Would ya mind puttin’ that in the basin for me? Ya don’t have to worry about washin’ up, I’ll take care of it after I shoo away your nosy kids.”

He makes a noise of affirmation, and stands to do as he’s told. He hears Kuro’s stern voice, and three other worried, yet a little defiant replies. Knowing Kuro’s weakness for his little rabbit kids, they’ll probably be let in sooner rather than later, and so resigns himself to a busy afternoon with a sigh.

But, as he tucks his blanket a little tighter around himself, he really doesn’t mind. Company would be good medicine for his sad, sick state.

The front door slams open, and loud greetings reverberate through the cottage and into Nazuna's poor, aching head.

Ahh, a busy afternoon indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> i know a sickfic isnt really what was prompted but i hope i made it fluffy enough to kinda pass hsdjsh
> 
> anyway stan ra*bits, your local family of one human (?) and three rabbit hybrids living in the woods together


End file.
